The movie ‘Food, Inc.’ shows bias in presentation

The movie was shown on the evening of Feb. 15. It was announced by Rockford Urban Ministries, and several organic gardeners were present. Their initial conversation included statements that there were only three seed companies from which to purchase farm seeds. This is simply untrue!

The movie showed mostly animal agriculture and the processing of meat. It showed some large confinement farming cases in which the animals were crowded, some died, and it showed some mass slaughter facilities. It falsely led one to think that they are all that way. Then, it showed an open-air organic farm chicken processing facility. That facility had the most depressing part of the movie where live chickens were put in a large funnel, their throats cut, and they were left there to bleed to death. When we raised livestock, we always respected the animals as we respected the land, the environment and those who would use our products. A poultry slaughtering facility killed the geese by bleeding to death as in the above organic facility. We put an immediate stop to that, requiring that the animals be killed by severing the neck. They said, “Government inspectors require that the heads be left on.” We defied the cruel government regulation to reduce cruelty. My parents and I always honored the compassionate teachings of Buddha, and we treated all living things accordingly.

Corn-fed beef is bad as compared to grass-fed beef is another part of the agenda in this movie. However, grass-fed beef cannot produce the prime and choice quality steaks many people prefer as corn-fed beef can. This fact was conveniently omitted in the movie.

The movie also showed some grain farming in which they stressed the use of Monsanto’s patented GMO (gene-modified organism) seed. Those who use the patented seed without paying for it are prosecuted per U.S. patent law. Monsanto does donate the proceeds from these cases to charity. The movie did not even mention that other non-GMO and non-patented seeds are available from Monsanto and from many other seed companies. It also failed to mention the tremendous saving in fuel, soil erosion, water loss and less impact on the environment the GMO seeds, chemicals and no-till farming make possible. After the movie, I talked to others, and most understood from the movie that Monsanto patented GMO seeds were the only farm seeds available. The movie didn’t actually say that, but it was inferred by omission, which is, obviously, the intent of the movie. The acoustics of the room make it difficult to understand spoken words, so some misunderstanding was possible.

In summary, the agenda of this movie, Food, Inc. is to mislead by deception and omission to promote the small, organic versus the larger, more efficient farms and processors.

I am Ed Schott, Rockford, Ill., engineer and owner and operator of our western Illinois farm, which our ancestors purchased in 1832. I have three patents, and I am keenly aware of patent law and the purpose it has in stimulating ingenuity.

One thought on “The movie ‘Food, Inc.’ shows bias in presentation”

Thank God there are people like you. I wish there were many thousands more. These (people) have no idea what they are talking about, or maybe they do and will one day all our food (if there is any) will come from great countries like cuba & africa. Heaven Heph Us.